Spring '08 Magazine: Coaching and Mentoring

We’ve all seen the coach who seemingly cares more about the final score than players’ personal development. But do coaches have an obligation to mentor players beyond the game?

Shayla Yeackley, Head Women’s Basketball Coach thinks mentoring and coaching go hand in hand. Some students need one–or both–more than others, and Yeackley knows how important it is to recognize the difference. “I would hope any coach would look at it as an opportunity to pour into the lives of the people they’re coaching somehow.”

Men’s Head Basketball Coach Trent Emenecker sees mentoring - or discipling, as he prefers to call it - in more of a spiritual context, whereas, “coaching is about basketball, sports, and training the body. Now, do those two intertwine themselves? Yes.” Emenecker doesn’t consider success simply having a great team, but ignoring students who aren’t going to class and taking care of themselves off the court. “I’ve got to have an equally good team on the court and off the court.”

NCU coaches believe, that athletics is closely connected with who the students
are and who they’re supposed to be. As Trey Meadows, Assistant Track & Field Coach, said, “The Lord’s given you these abilities and, if it doesn’t conflict with the rest of your life, you need to exercise them. But we want to understand that in the context of how the Lord would use you [in and outside of sports] situations.”

Meadows reminds athletes that people know who they are because they wear a jersey and that everyone on the team is a leader. He ensures that idea comes out in practice situations and relationally as well. “We want to develop the whole person,” he said.

The coaches’ philosophy is backed up by programming within the Athletics Department, where mentoring happens within the Student Athlete Leadership programs, like the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and the Leadership Council of Captains (LCC).

One or two captains from each team meet regularly with the athletic staff. They often hear from staff and guest speakers at the Captains’ lunches, SAAC and LCC meetings. Athletes are also given opportunities to dialogue with one another at Leadership Lunches held twice a semester for all athletes.

The SAAC is the “next generation” of the freshmen and sophomores in whom coaches see potential leadership qualities. “We put them in there with the idea that yes, you have captains, but you don’t have a team until others buy into [your] leadership,” Meadows explained.

In athletics, it’s easy to get caught up in sports as a means to an end - winning. “But we really want it to be more than that for our athletes,” Meadows said. He believes those organizations help form student leaders’
identities and leadership
skills beyond sports. “We feel like sports is the ultimate opportunity where rubber meets the road. You can hear preaching on patience, joy, perseverance, and all those things. Sports teach these lessons every day, every practice, and every time you step outside of practice.” Opportunities to mentor off the court and field come naturally in college athletics. Emenecker makes the most of event van rides to road games. “There’s a lot of interaction, whether it’s a question one of the players asks or my response to a driver who cuts me off.” He knows he’s mentoring through behavior and communication, and, “the way I treat my wife when she travels with us.” Tough losses and big wins are also no-brainers for teaching class and character.

Meadows tries to instill character values through “mini-sermons” during practice. And like the basketball team, cross country runners are on the road quite a bit throughout the season. “We go to Culver’s after every race and we have every opportunity to be idiots,” Meadows laughed. “But they always carry themselves well.”

Yeackley sees the payoff of keeping an open door for students. “It’s hard to explain, but you can see the growth from year to year. And you’ve just got to encourage that and tell them that, and their face just lights up [to] know that someone notices.”

Meadows believes no coach is going to be successful if they don’t have the mindset of building people. He’s gratified about five Cross Country National Championships in three years. “But it’s a failure if somebody like Amanda Evans passes away and we’re too busy to slow down and [process that loss]. I knew that it had become more than that for us when the basketball team stepped out on the court, the first home game (after her death), and they were all wearing tape on their wrists with ‘No. 5’ because Amanda was our number five runner. That’s how you know athletics here is more than just an opportunity to put on a jersey. It’s an opportunity to be who you are and support each other.”

Some call it coaching, some say mentoring. For NCU coaches, the two run parallel.